UMHS to expand, renovate Emergency Department

The Emergency Department at the U-M Health System will undergo a $17.7 million renovation project.

This project will redesign and expand the arrival and triage area, as well as expand and improve patient treatment rooms. The Board of Regents approved the project at its meeting Thursday.

“We continue to see steady growth in patient visits to our Emergency Department. This renovation will help support the ongoing quality initiatives and improvement efforts we are making,” said Dr. William Barsan, chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine in the Medical School. “In order to better meet our current demands and our future requirements, we now need to expand and enhance our facility.”

Lean projects have improved Emergency Department care processes, including patient arrival and discharge processes, performance and reporting of diagnostic imaging studies, care of patients with heart attacks, and workflow and communication within the department.

With more than 77,000 patient visits in fiscal year 2009 and continued growth in patient volume, the current Emergency Department experiences times of congestion. Emergency Department visits are rising, and so is the complexity of issues for patients being seen.

A multi-phased project is planned to minimize disruption to patient care. It is scheduled to begin late this year and to be completed in summer of 2012.

The project begins with the renovation of more than 6,000 square feet in the Medical Inn Building on the medical campus, so that Hospital Dentistry can move and vacate space next to the current Emergency Department.

In the second phase, approximately 22,500 gross square feet will be renovated in and around the current Emergency Department, which is on level B1 of University Hospital. When the renovation is complete, the Emergency Department space will have increased to 41,015 square feet from 35,153 square feet. The patient arrival, triage and family waiting areas also will be renovated.

As part of the project, the current psychiatric emergency services space will be relocated and expanded; its new location also will be adjacent to the Emergency Department.

Funding for the project will be provided from the U-M Hospitals and Health Center resources. The architectural firm of Hobbs and Black Associates Inc. will design the project.